"German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose country temporarily took in Navalny in 2020 after he was poisoned with a nerve agent, praised the Kremlin critic's bravery and said his death makes clear "what kind of regime this is."
"He has probably now paid for this courage with his life," Scholz said, standing next to Zelenskyy. The German leader said he met Navalny in Berlin during his convalescence.
Navalny was "brutally murdered by the Kremlin," said Latvian President Edgars Rink"vis in a post on X, formerly Twitter. "That's a fact and that is something one should know about the true nature of Russia's current regime."
Navalny's associates stressed they didn't have independent confirmation of his death in the reports that came from Russia's penitentiary officials. His close ally Ivan Zhdanov said authorities "must notify the relatives" within 24 hours, but there haven't been any.
The outpouring of sympathy for Navalny's family and outrage at the Kremlin, which in recent years mounted an unprecedented crackdown on dissent, came from all over the world.
"If this is true, then no matter the formal cause the responsibility for the premature death is Vladimir Putin personally, who first gave the green light to the poisoning of Alexei and then put him in prison," said Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an exiled Russia tycoon turned opposition figure in exile, in an online statement.
Other Russian opposition activists echoed him.
"If it is confirmed, the death of Alexei is a murder. Organized by Putin," opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov said on social media. "Even if Alexei died of natural' causes, those were triggered by his poisoning and further torture in prison."
Former world chess champion-turned-Kremlin opponent Garry Kasparov said "Putin tried and failed to murder Navalny quickly and secretly with poison, and now he has murdered him slowly and publicly in prison."
"He was killed for exposing Putin and his mafia as the crooks and thieves they are," tweeted Kasparov, who lives abroad.
Pyotr Verzilov, a prominent member of the Russian protest group ----- Riot, said "Navalny was murdered in prison." In a post on X, Verzilov added: "We will definitely take revenge and destroy this regime."
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Navalny's death showed that "Putin fears nothing more than dissent from his own people."
She called it "a grim reminder of what Putin and his regime are all about," and added it should provide impetus to "unite in our fight to safeguard the freedom and safety of those who dare to stand up against autocracy."
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia has questions to answer.
"What we have seen is that Russia has become a more and more authoritarian power, that they have used repression against the opposition for many years," Stoltenberg said.
Navalny, he said, "was in jail, a prisoner, and that makes it extremely important that Russia now answer all the questions that it will be asked about the cause of death."
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, also in Munich, called his death, if confirmed, "a further sign of Putin's brutality" and that "whatever story they tell " let us be clear " Russia is responsible."
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